There’s a little Lady Gaga in all of us! Why, because we all crave “the applause”, don’t we? We crave to be known by the crowd, by the level of influence in our community, position at work, number of likes on Facebook, number of followers on Twitter, [fill in the blank]. We actually convince ourselves that one of these proofs of “being known” will satisfy us…but they don’t.

Have you ever paused and thought about how easy it is for us to live for the applause of others rather than for the approval of God?

It is a subtle shift that happens in our life that we don’t recognize until we begin altering our values. These values were once driven by a desire to please God, but slowly drift to impressing others; convincing others how great we are, trying to prove to others how worthy we are.

For most of my life I felt like “me” was never good enough. Here are some examples of how this played out…I wasn’t good enough for my teachers; I wasn’t good enough for my friends; I wasn’t good enough for my mom and dad; I wasn’t good enough for my lacrosse coach; I wasn’t good enough for my wife (when I was married). I bought into this lie of enemy so deeply that it gripped my heart like a python!

I share in my book Heartstone. I walked through dark and desperate places of living life my own way, only to find myself in a condition of complete depravity, loneliness, and shame. My desperate circumstances eventually eroded away enough of “self” to bring me to my knees in surrender. These moments are when God loves to jump in with His grace and pierce your midnight with a brilliant sunshine only experienced by the forgiven and redeemed. Through His love, mercy, and incredible grace, He is raising me up. He brings us life through His death and there is no greater love than this!

At some point, I created this belief system that thought if I could achieve enough, receive enough applause and impress people enough, I would finally be comfortable being “myself”.

Living this way will never lead to you and I being ourselves…it only leads us to be performers; performers who are seduced by the stage. It is an exhausting way to live.

Tony Campolo shares, “There is a drivenness about the American people….each is trying to establish his or her own place in society through personal achievement. People are supposed to earn their own place on the ladder of success. Somehow we Christians believe that being caught up in the drive to gain recognition and to obtain the symbols of success is something we left behind when we committed ourselves to Christ. But few beliefs are further from the truth….The symbols of success may change, but Christians are even more plagued than others by anxieties about their performance in life. For Christians the stakes are even higher than for the secularist. We are constantly judging ourselves in negative ways because we fall short of expectations. We think our prayer life is not good enough; or our Bible study is not deep enough; or we aren’t witnessing enough; or we are not loving enough.”ⁱ

Andy Stanley offer these 3 Laws Of Applauseⁱⁱ.

• What’s applauded as exceptional the first time will be expected the next time.
• Applause is intoxicating.
• Applause is addictive.

Like most men, I always wanted to do something great with my life. Like most men, I desperately wanted to be a “somebody.” Like most men, the focus was on me!

C.S. Lewis brilliantly sums it up as “win worship.” You know…look at me!!

I was addicted to winning at all cost and over time I completely lost myself in the pursuit of my career. My identity became to twisted and interwoven in position, prosperity and power that the man God created me to be was barely recognizable!

I was an easy target for the narrative of the world and I exchanged the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25) and destroyed myself and my family in the process.

Then God shows up and grace happened…stunning, swift, harsh, relentless and unbending. My Abba Father loved me so much that He brutally spared me from destroying myself by removing my false “dream” (my “idol”). Let me be clear, it didn’t feel like grace at the time. It was brutally painful, exposing and disappointing. It was so bad that I almost didn’t want to be spared.

Behind the applause and desire to being known are the questions that most of us ask ourselves in one way or another…. Am I worthy? What makes me valuable?

Here is the rub…we need to realize that we have been called “to be known.” God wants us to be known, and to use that for Him. He wants us to leverage the gifts He has given us in our calling for His glory, not for the pursuit of applause.

How do you survive “the applause” or “being known”? Remember who it’s from. Remember who it’s for. Listen for the applause of Heaven, not of man.

Remember, you don’t have to perform for the pursuit of applause. You don’t have to pretend for the pursuit of applause.

You are a child of the living God and you are immeasurable. Step into your calling for His glory and begin to live in your belovedness today!